Charlie Swan: Vampire Hunter (Prologue)
by yetanotherghostdinosaur
Summary: What if Twilight weren't about Edward anymore? What if Twilight no longer had Bella? Taking place parallel to New Moon, we find Charlie Swan grieving and alone. Bella being gone won't stop the onslaught of Vampires coming to wage war on Forks and both sides have their teeth bared in the name of revenge and love.


"_I should have been a better father. I should've put my foot down about those motorcycles. Did she even have a license for one?! I don't even know! So much time was wasted. I should've found a different way to make her happy. I should've and I could've but I wasn't and I didn't and now I can't. This is it. I... I... I'm completely alone."_

Charlie Swan was never a crying man. Many in the town of Forks would go so far to say that he wasn't really even a feeling man at all. Today however, in the privacy of his car in the back of the church parking lot, was a Charlie Swan no one had ever met before; not even himself. Under neglected facial hair were cheeks swollen from tears. The skin that did show was pink like a newborn child and seemed even brighter in comparison to his deep brown hair and dark circles from lack of sleep.

With a lurch from his entire body, Charlie pushed himself out of the car and stood unsteadily on the gravel plot beneath his feet. He started scuffling on auto pilot toward the chapel. Bella's funeral was fifteen minutes away, just beyond those doors. The path stretches out almost infinitely in Charlie's head and time seems to slow to a grinding halt as if to allow his mind to play catch up and grasp the situation. Memory takes advantage here.

Bella _just _turned eighteen. A week ago, she was still alive. Four days ago, she left on a motorcycle ride and never came back. An officer patrolling the highway and discovered a scene drenched in blood. Accident investigators say she lost control, veered off into a tree and somewhere along the way, hit a sign post that decapitated her. They can't say for sure whether that the force of hitting the sign is what did it but murder at the speed Bella was going? That's not humanly possible. She was unidentifiable at first.

The accident was reported over police radio, but Charlie was sure that Bella would be with Jacob. A lump of worry struck his throat but he pushed it back and he waited. He waited and waited for her to walk in, or for a phone call, a text or even a god-damned telegram as long as he knew Bella was okay! Fear left him drumming his fingers and bouncing his knee in anticipation through the night for what seemed like an eternity until, out of the corner of his eye...was it? YES! A motorcycle light flashed through the window and he heard it park in the drive way!

He was so silly to freak out, he thought. Good thing it was his day off, he didn't have to consider missing his shift. No chance of kidnapping, no need for an APB, his daughter was home and Charlie could actually laugh at how worked up he got for absolutely nothing. But after that laugh... she's grounded! "You don't spend over a day away without checking in with your father at least once, young lady!" He already knew what he'd say. He stood up as foot steps were heard on the front porch. She'd be walking in that door right now. But the foot steps stopped and a very hard knock with a sense of urgency behind it hit the screen.

It wasn't Bella but an officer who had nothing for him but a ride down to the hospital to confirm the identity of a body. Charlie's entire body prickled with disappointment. He closed his eyes tighter than he ever thought he could in an attempt to beat down the welling sadness and fear and rode with in silence. A broken, headless body on a gurney didn't look like much to anybody else, the cut-to-ribbons face was an absolute puzzle but he knew. He knew it was her and he collapsed on his knees, bent over, cursing god silently.

He started losing it all over again. He tried to fight back those feelings of loneliness he had been terrified of for so long but they were winning. His eyes watering up, he covered his face with his hand. This was all too much. As if by divine mercy, a frozen hand reached out and rested on the shoulder of Charlie's shabby gray suit.


End file.
